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Configuring Control Room Monitor (CRM)

Article contents

  1. Configuring event notifications
  2. Configuring the Site Status tab
  3. Changing equipment mode with CRM
  4. Local admin configuration in CRM
    1. Configuring priorities
    2. Managing users
    3. Nimbus Notify Integration
    4. Acknowledge and clear across multiple CRMs
    5. Customising acknowledgment comments
    6. Managing mappings

Configuring event notifications

CRM is entered as a user in the Nimbus Web Portal so event notifications are configured in the same way as for a standard user. Refer to the below article for guidance.

Subscribing users to event notifications

Configuring the Site Status tab

In the CRM there is a tab named Site Status, which shows the status of the equipment that the CRM is monitoring.

The equipment which is shown in this tab are the equipment that the CRM user has permissions to in the Nimbus Portal.

Please refer to the below article for guidance on configuring permissions for the CRM user. The CRM user will need the "Event Log" permission enabled against relevant equipment.

Managing user permissions

Changing equipment mode with CRM

When you click on an equipment listed on the Site Status tab you can have the option to change the mode between Live, Service and Weekly Test.

The CRM user will need the "Mode Change" permission enabled for this action. Refer to the below article for guidance.

Managing user permissions

Local admin configuration in CRM

Your CRM admin user will see a configuration tab, accessing a suite of customisation and configuration options.


Configuring priorities

Nimbus CRM defines 10 priorities, by default are defined as below:

  • 1 - unused
  • 2 - Service
  • 3 - WeeklyTest
  • 4 - 
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10 - default for all events without a specific mapping - see mapping below

Each priority level can be configured by admins by right clicking on the Control Room Monitor column headers and selecting Edit Priorities...

  • Show this priority in new alarm notifications
    • This option controls if events at this priority show in the banner at the bottom of the CRM.
  • Change priority after time
    • This option allows for a verification timer, where new events from all equipment or some equipment or some devices can be configured with verification required. Which then can play a different Alarm Sound and show differently. If the event is not cleared within the "If not acknowledged in" time then it automatically changes to the configured priority which then would show differently and make a different sound alerting operators to escalate the event.
    • In Nimbus you can edit a TOC and select some devices in the fire alarm panel which require verification, then that information is sent from Nimbus to the CRM which can be used in the mappings to configure the verification priority. See LAN Control Systems for more information.
  • Alarm Sound
    • This can be selected from the sounds that are bundled with CRM or you can place your own sounds on the computer and select another sound.
  • Priority Colour
    • Click on this button to show a colour select dialog to select the colour this event shows in the alarm list.

Managing users

Here you can configure Nimbus users. The Nimbus CRM ships with a document listing the preconfigured user accounts with their username and passwords, the list is also below:

  • admin - preconfigured as an admin account
  • ops - preconfigured as a operations user with no permissions except alarm handling

You can add additional users by entering text into the row at the bottom with the * in the row header.

Username, Password and Name are required fields. All others are optional.

Timeout is by default 0, this is a time out in seconds that can be configured to force users signed out if you want to force users to sign in before handling alarms and have an accurate audit trail.

On the right the Permissions are relative to the user selected on the left, those permissions.

  • By default ops user cannot show/hide columns or edit priorities but this can be configured in the permissions.
  • Can manage other users - can they access this Edit Users page
  • Can manage devices connected to the service - can access Edit Devices page
  • Can manage mappings - can access Edit Mappings page
  • Can generate reports - can access reports which is not implemented yet
  • Acknowledge alarms/events - can take ownership of alarms
  • Update alarms/events - can add comments to alarms/events
  • Clear alarms/events - can clear alarms/events
  • Show/Hide Columns - can configure the columns shown in the CRM (the columns are global to all users)
  • Edit Priorities - can configure the alarm priorities which allows you to configure the sounds and behaviour of the CRM
  • Acknowledge all alarms/events - can clear all active alarms
  • Allowed to Exit monitor - can this user exit the CRM
  • Administrator (full permissions) - assigns all the permissions

Columns for a user

  • Username - login user name
  • Password - login password, not shown. Enter text to change a user's password, encrypted in the database
  • Name - Friendly name
  • Company
  • Department
  • Email
  • Mobile
  • Timeout - timeout in seconds when the user is automatically logged out
  • Default User - unused
  • Deleted - unused

Nimbus Notify Integration

Here the Nimbus device is selected, on the right Fields you may which to configure the way that feedback is processed from Nimbus Notify and Nimbus Portal.

  • In v1.5.1 support was added so that Nimbus Events can be delivered to CRM and Nimbus Notify and feedback shared between devices. So if an event is acknowledged by an engineer, that acknowledgement is sent to CRM and other Nimbus Notify users. Same goes to cleared events, once an event is cleared on Nimbus Notify it is cleared from CRM and all other Notify users.
  • in v1.5.4 there was Feedback Process options added to control how CRM processes this feedback.
    • The default option now is to only log Nimbus Notify feedback only as comments and not effect the alarm handling of CRM.
    • Handle Acknowledgements but only log clear as comments, forcing the operator to clear events in CRM.
    • Handle Acknowledgements and Clears as in v1.5.1.
  • To set the config, with Nimbus device selected, either click Add Field Feedback processing options to add the option or edit the FeedbackProcessOptions field if it already exists.

Acknowledge and clear across multiple CRMs

For standalone CRMs this would need to completed on each one.

1. Select Configuration 

2. Select Managed Devices 

3. Select Nimbus 

4. Select Add Fields 

5. Tick Feedback processing options 

6. Select Acknowledge and Clear as per Nimbus feedback

7. Select Ok

8. Select Ok

"For example, if we clear the faults on CRM1, this also clears on CRM2. If we clear the fault on CRM2, we still need to manually clear on CRM1?"

CRM 1 - Doesn't need feedback setting

CRM 2 - Does need the feedback setting

The result is that CRM 1 will clear an event, this will also clear on CRM 2, however, if someone on CRM 2 clears an event, it will not clear on CRM 1.

Customising acknowledgment comments

To add pre-defined comments to the list above please select the Control Room Monitor device (in Manage Devices dialog)

  • Click Add Field and select Predefined Acknowledgements

  • Add a Predefined Acknowledgement field for each comment you want to define, these are selectable when you are Acknowledging events.

Managing mappings

Here you configure the mappings from Nimbus Event to how you want the Event to be displayed and handled in the CRM, most of the basic field mapping is already done as part of the setup process by LAN Control Systems.

There are some fields such as maps, graphics, custom priorities and instructions that you may want to configure.

  • In the example above, you can configure a mapping such that if the event is from the Equipment Site1 then in the Map tab of the event details show the image c:/images/Site 1.png.
  • This can be used to show a floor plan of this equipment, or a location to this equipment on the site.
  • Also in the example above you can see how the priorities are configured for Service (priority 2), WeeklyTest (priority 3), and FAULT (priority 4). You can configure priorities as you see fit but we recommend you keep the standard set LAN Control Systems provides.
  • The additional example shows other priority mappings and showing instructions for Weekly Tests and FAULTs.

The fields available for custom actions are:

  • Instructions, by default we don't map any instructions. You can create a mapping with a blank Source field ID and Dest field ID being Instructions, this will then be a base set of instructions for all events. Then you can add additional mapping rows for specific Equipment names, or event types which then append to the base Instructions.
  • Detail, Map, Alarm. These fields can be mapped to anything. Click on the ... button for a helper in configuring the mapping.
  • It can be a URL for a web page such as CCTV system or some other external system.
  • It can be a file://url to an image on the local CRM computer which shows floor plan or site map.
  • It can be an Open Streetmap view, enter a UK postcode to lookup the GPS coordinates to show on the map.
  • It can be an axis video server, the axis video player is built into CRM.
  • These Detail, Map and Alarm fields show as additional tabs in the event details. Additional fields can be added to show as tabs in the event details, contact LAN Control Systems for details.
  • Map
  • Alarm/li>

In v1.5.4 you can use variable expansion in the Dest Value column:

  • Use { and } to enclose a field name from the Source Field ID column to cause this to be expanded to the value of that field when this event is processed.
  • EG. {Panel No} will be replaced with the panel number of the event such as 1, or 2.
  • The field name much match the name in the Source Field ID - including case.
  • Example Fields:
    • {Panel No]
    • {Loop No}
    • {Address}
    • {Zone No}
    • {Mode} - L,W,S
    • {GroupName} - FAULT,FIRE ALARM
    • {EventName] - Loop Open circuit, Fire alarm
    • {EquipmentName} - equipment name in Nimbus
    • {SiteName} - site or client that owns equipment
    • EG to show device level graphics you'd need to create an image graphic (jpg, png) for each detector and call point
    • Place these in a folder such as c:\graphics
    • Add mapping with Dest Value as file://c:\graphics\{Panel No}_{Loop No}_{Address}.png